Major-Gen. McMahon — Culm-measures at Bude, Cornwall. 107 



by step, it would have been difficult to believe that so complicated 

 a result had been produced in so simple a manner, and that less 

 than a hundred yards, in point of distance, had been sufficient for 

 its development. 



The coast-line above described lies to the north of Bude. A 

 similar state of things exists in the opposite direction. At the 

 Haven itself the well-known feature called the "Whale's Back" is 

 due to a sharp fold in the strata, and other contortions are to be seen 

 in its immediate vicinity. The spot, however, likely to prove of 

 most interest to the geologist is a little cove, three-quarters of a mile 



Culm-measures, Efrord Ditch, Bude, North Cornwall. 



further south, called Efford Ditch. Here, high and bold cliffs are 

 exposed which present for study a series of most complicated con- 

 tortions and flexures. I spent many hours, on several occasions, 

 attempting to draw these cliffs ; but I found it impossible to give 

 a general impression of the elaborate crumpling, faulting, and 

 crushing, revealed by a close study of these rocks. Beds are not 

 only doubled up and folded on themselves, but they are crushed, 

 ruptured, and severed from each other in a way that has. in places, 

 reduced them to the condition of a Chinese puzzle. In other places, 

 again, where the arrangement of the beds looked tolerably simple, 

 when viewed from a distance, a close inspection revealed some half- 

 dozen small faults and sliding-planes, within as many yards. An 

 extensive series of photographs would be required to convey to 

 the mind of a person who had not studied the rocks themselves 



